Strapped for cash: Wireless Festival organisers have announced plans to introduce micro-chipped entrance wristbands as part of a new ‘wave and pay’ cash system.

The future of music festivals? Wireless Festival have announced plans for a new contactless payment system

Having your money stolen, queuing for costly cash machines and wallets lost in the mud – just some of the nightmares you can face during festival season.

However, all this could be a thing of the past thanks to microchipped entrance wristbands that hold your loot electronically.

Life can exclusively reveal Wireless Festival is the first British event to announce revellers can go cash free with contactless payments of up to £20.

The wristbands use near field communication (NFC) radio signals to ‘wave and pay’ for goods, cutting waiting times for food, merchandise and in the dreaded beer tent. Other benefits include fast-track entry, VIP upgrades and access to a Perk Park with luxury loos.

Tom Gregory is head of digital payments at Barclaycard, which is introducing the technology. ‘When you think about how much time people spend in lines, at ATMs, and then turn around to join a bar queue, it’s taking away the experience of the actual event,’ he says.

‘We’ve tried it out with VIPs and a select few festival goers but we’re bringing it to the masses this time. Any customer going to Wireless gets the opportunity to use a wristband and every retailer on site will accept them.’Barclaycard won’t reveal the exact number of wristbands being given out for security reasons but says it’s in the thousands – and any ticket holder can apply for one.

Richard Melville, editor of What Mobile magazine, says: ‘As someone who spent hours queuing for cash at Glastonbury, NFC payment technology is a godsend. The first rule of festival survival is a regular supply of cash and this solves that problem for everyone instantly.’

Wireless isn’t the only British music festival rolling out NFC wristbands this summer, so expect others to announce their plans soon.

The technology has raised security fears that thieves could swipe bank details or steal wristbands.

However, Gregory believes using NFC is safer than cash. ‘If you lose your wallet and you’re lucky enough to find it, it is unlikely to have any cash left in it,’ he says. ‘If you lose your wristband or someone steals it, you are protected by our fraud guarantee, which means make one phone call, or speak to staff on site, and we’ll block it and get your money refunded.’

However, Barclaycard admits it can’t issue victims of theft with new bands – meaning you could be left without any money at all. ‘It’s deliberate from a security point of view,’ says Gregory. ‘We’ll monitor things this year and see if that changes in future.’

NFC technology features on the latest smartphones and bank cards and is expected to make a big impact this summer, with 150,000 terminals accepting payments in Britain.

Last November, Life reported on the race to install mobile payment technology in time for the London Olympics. Samsung and Visa are installing 3,000 terminals on the Olympic site and have an official payment app called payWave, which visitors can use to buy snacks and merchandise.

‘NFC payments are really going to be showcased there,’ says Gregory. ‘I’m sure you’ve seen the Usain Bolt advert and there’s going to be a lot more in the run-up to the games. We just need to get customers used to it, educated in it, and the Olympics really helps with that.’

A lack of compatible phones has also stalled developments but Samsung’s new Galaxy S3 and the latest LG and BlackBerry models support the technology.

The move by Samsung, Apple’s biggest rival, should force its hand to include NFC in the iPhone 5, expected later this year. The California-based company could also allow users to swap iTunes content simply by rubbing handsets together.

In a recently published patent, iPhone users could gift playlists to each other for a fee. Apple is also reportedly working on its own NFC payment system linked to an iTunes account. This would likely compete with Orange’s popular Quick Tap, solutions from Barclaycard and Visa, and Google Wallet, which is yet to come to Britain.

‘Step forward five years and customers will want to buy things and pay using their mobile phone,’ says Gregory. ‘You use your mobile today for things that were unimaginable five years ago.’